The first details of a painting I'm working on at the moment . I'm hoping to get a series of 'Ugly Bird' paintings finished for some exhibitions in the Summer .
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It's funny when and how inspiration gets a hold of you , recently popped to our local garden centre , to discover they have a rather small grubby pond with the most beautiful black swan on it . I have never painted a swan , nothing against them - they just don't make me want to pick up a paint brush - but this one ... I think would look stunning against a gold leaf back ground . Managed to do a few on the spot sketches and take a few snaps . Hope to show you progress on this - as and when .       I hurt my back and left shoulder about a fortnight ago ( perhaps a game of rounders - baseball to any one in the states - wasn't a good idea on a wet soggy Yorkshire moor !! ) I've always loved to paint and draw - being on strict Doctors orders to 'take it easy ' has made me realise how MUCH I love painting and drawing . Any how, I am slowly improving and as we had a rather unusual visitor to our garden today - I always have a small sketchbook on hand - I couldn't resist doing a few quick studies of him and managed to get some ref photos as well .       A friend recently asked me why I paint 'ugly' birds - I think he was referring to my love of the corvid (crow) family. Apart from the fact that I think they are rather beautiful birds in their splendid plumage - I think I am fascinated by their character. Plus as I have recently started working with gold leaf I've found through trial and error that you need a strong subject that can hold it's own against the gold leaf which can be such an over powering medium. Rooks , magpies and other corvids are wonderful subjects that compliment the gold leaf.   Over the half term hols an old back injury came back to haunt me - so on strict doctors orders not to paint etc - I found myself with some time to go through old sketch books and look for new inspiration for future paintings . I rather liked these bald ibis studies that I sketched a while back . When I'm up and about and back to work I may work on this theme . |
